


All Our Bad Memories

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 22:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14757566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Mal almost died at Cotillion. Evie watched with her own two eyes as Mal's life was almost taken away from her forever, and with the memory of that night plauging her mind, body, and soul, Evie doesn't intend to let her go.





	All Our Bad Memories

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

Cotillion was supposed to be a night of fun, and festivities. Loud music, dancing, loitering by a punch bowl, being with friends. It was supposed to be a night for making memories, an evening that would last forever in a mind long after other mundane memories of school had faded.  
  
What it was not supposed to be was Evie watching her best friend drowning under the sea, massive turquoise tentacles curled tight around wings, pinning them down and holding a desperately thrashing dragon beneath the waves.

Cotillion was an evening that would last forever in Evie’s mind for a far different reason. She would always remember the pain in her hands as white knuckles and taut skin clenched the ship’s railing so tight, her own screams burning in her ears as she cried out _“Uma, no! Please!! She can’t swim!!!”_  
  
The air shaking as Uma just laughed; Evie would definitely remember that. She stood there, helpless, somehow both frozen and trembling at the same time, horribly sure she was about to watch Mal die before her very eyes.  
  
But Lonnie’s recent excursion to The Isle had taught her to always be prepared, and thankfully for Mal, her version of prepared involved sharp objects. No one had the time or the need to ask how she’d managed to sneak a duffel of fencing foils into Cotillion, she and others merely grabbed ahold, racing to the ship’s edge and hurling them overboard like harpoons. Although more annoyed than truly threatened, Uma was forced back, uncurling her tentacles from the dragon’s now-limp form and retreating to The Isle with a menacing promise that Auradon hadn’t seen the last of her.  
  
Then there was a dragon, floating still and lifelessly in the water. And after a plume of purple smoke had taken over, there was Mal, floating still and lifelessly in the water. Jay was the first one to dive in. Ben was next. Carlos would have followed, but knew his presence was needed at Evie’s side, gripping her hand and keeping a steady arm around her. It seemed like an eternity that Mal laid there on deck as the boys tried to get her breathing again. Evie, ice cold, head pounding, was certain that Mal wouldn’t. But then that choking gasp cut through the ringing in Evie’s ears, coughing and sputtering and spitting of water followed. And it seemed like everything would be alright. When Evie dropped to her knees beside Mal on the soaking deck, crying and hugging her, and when Mal hugged back, it seemed like everything would be alright.  
  
When they slept side by side that night, Evie was curled close. Her head on Mal’s chest to listen to her heartbeat, just to be sure. And Mal didn’t disappear in the night, the way Evie worried she would, no. Evie opened her eyes the next sunny morning to find her sleeping soundly, battered and bruised, but sleeping soundly nonetheless. Evie still kissed her, to feel soft lips underneath hers. Just to be sure. It roused Mal awake just like a fairytale, where closed eyes and soft lips kissed Evie back to quietly tell her  _“I’m here”._  
  
They were clamored over going down the hall that morning, everyone rushing to Mal’s side to make inquiries of how she felt, to check if she was okay. Evie could’ve told them she was okay; with her fingers twined tightly within Mal’s, she made sure she was okay.  
  
The day passed without incident, albeit with Evie constantly looking over her shoulder, remembering Uma’s threatening promise and seeing tentacles lurking in the shadows almost everywhere she turned. But she had Mal tucked safely in their bed when evening fell, Mal flat on her stomach with sleepy murmurs being buried into her pillow. She’d shivered when Evie slowly pulled her pajama shirt up, first from the chill of nighttime air and then from Evie’s fingertips lazily tracing the skin of her back. Tracing the shape of bruises left behind from a sea witch’s crushing grasp. In some ways, it was reassurance. If the bruises were there, it meant that Mal had made it out alive.  
  
They hadn’t had the chance to talk about it yet. Near-death experiences weren’t things any of them ever thought they’d have to worry about in Auradon, and frankly, Evie didn’t quite feel she was up to reliving it just yet. So she and Mal stayed quiet, kept words and thoughts to themselves. Evie leaned over to kiss along Mal’s bruises, lightly and gently so as not to hurt. That night it was Mal who curled in close, and Evie who gladly let her, wrapping her arms around Mal and holding her to her heart. Shutting her brain down right then and there so she wouldn’t have to think about what might’ve happened if Cotillion had gone even more horribly wrong, if Evie had lost the ability to hold Mal just like this.  
  
It was Mal who had come so close to dying a watery death, yet Mal who slept easily and peacefully through the night. Evie was up evening after evening, eyes snapping open every hour, every other hour, instantly alert and listening for the sound of Mal’s breathing. And even when she heard it, still her fingers crept around in the dark, trying to feel out Mal’s messy hair. Only when she felt it would she let loose a breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding, and let her eyes drift shut once more. One morning, weeks later, Mal wasn’t there when dim sunlight fought past the curtains and gently woke Evie. No steady breathing, no bed of tangled purple.  
  
“…M? …M!! Mal!!”  
  
Evie rocketed upright, throwing covers off and jumping out of bed so fast that her body and balance didn’t have time to keep up and nearly toppled her onto the floor. Mal came running, having just finished getting dressed in the bathroom, running straight for Evie and letting the two of them fall into an embrace.  
  
“E, I’m right here,” she said calmly.  
  
Evie hated that it had only taken her seconds to start shaking so badly.  
  
“Mal, I…oh Mal, I’m so sorry,” she apologized ashamedly.  
  
“Hey, no, don’t apologize,” Mal cupped a hand to Evie’s cheek. Evie leaned into it right away.  
  
“…No, I have to,” Evie insisted, coming to her senses again. “I’m sorry for all the clinging, Mal. Glued to your side, always needing to know where you are, always having to hold your hand or touch your arm or lay my head on your shoulder, I just—”  
  
“You almost lost me,” Mal finished for her. “I could have died thanks to Uma. And you think you’re being crazy and paranoid, you call it ‘clinging’, but I haven’t said a single thing about it because…I almost lost you too.”  
  
Even as they talked, Evie still needed her reassurance that Mal was actually there in front of her, holding her hand to the one Mal softly laid on her cheek.  
  
“If I had drowned, I would never have gotten to see you again. Maybe Uma wouldn’t have been able to be stopped, and she would have rampaged all across Auradon without me being here to stand with you and try to protect you. When I was underwater, with my wings trapped and my body crushed in those tentacles, I kept thinking ’…I haven’t said goodbye to Evie’. And that made me want to cry so much more than the thought of dying did. Thinking that we might never see each other again, and that I didn’t even leave you with a 'goodbye’ or an 'I love you’.”  
  
Evie stiffened, lips parting as a gasp slipped loose.  
  
“…But you’ve never told me you loved me before,” she whispered, in disbelief that those words had come out of Mal’s mouth in the first place, even if their meaning was only indirect.  
  
“…Then I guess I’m telling you now. I love you, Evie. I love that you’re always holding my hand, and trying now more than ever to keep me close, and yes, even listening in the dark for the sound of me breathing. It’s everything I would have missed if I hadn’t made it out of the water, so please…don’t apologize.”  
  
Mal pressed a kiss to the corner of Evie’s lips.  
  
“…Mal, I love you too.”  
  
Mal’s near-death experience and declarations of love. Two very different but very emotional conversations that Evie never would have dared to have at the same time, yet here she was.  
  
“I love you, but all I can think about is how still you were in the water, how Uma just laughed and swam away promising that she’d be back,” Evie went on. “And honestly? Part of me is terrified that this is just a dream, that you really did die in the water and this is me unable to handle it, trapped inside my own head in a world where you made it out okay and you’re still alive.”  
  
“…So you keep checking. Making sure you can still feel me, hear me.”  
  
“…Making sure I haven’t woken up from the dream.”  
  
Mal took Evie’s hand without a word, and pressed it to her heart. Evie felt the heartbeat, maybe a little on the fast side, but felt it nonetheless.   
  
“It’s not a dream. When I touched my mother’s scepter in your place, I snapped right out of the sleeping curse, and you were the first one I saw after my eyes opened. When I ran away to The Isle, it was you and you alone that I came home for. A deranged octo-pirate tried to drown me, and here I am, standing face to face with you. I come back to you, Evie. I always have, and I always will.”  
  
“…Do you promise?”  
  
Evie desperately needed to hear it promised as she felt Mal’s heartbeat calm under her fingers. Mal leaned in so close, tilting her head and whispering in Evie’s ear.  
  
“I promise. I can never, and  _will_  never leave you. I love you. And when you love someone, you’re with them forever. That’s one thing that Auradon has always gotten right.”  
  
Forever with Mal. That would be the real dream.  
  
“…Uma could come back,” Evie wrapped her arms protectively around Mal’s waist, like the pirate was right outside the bedroom door, waiting to strike.  
  
“She could. But she’s not going to get me. I have too much to live for,” Mal kissed the tip of Evie’s nose. “As long as you’re here, I’m not going anywhere.”  
  
Evie had to admit, she liked the sound of that.  
  
“And besides,” Mal went on with a smug grin. “Dragons have nine lives, remember?”  
  
Finally, Evie smiled.  
  
“You’re thinking of cats.”  
  
“No, pretty sure cats stole it from us.”  
  
“Well, either way…”  
  
When Evie kissed her, deeply, she paid extra attention to all the little things. How the green of Mal’s eyes sparkled before her lids peacefully fluttered shut, how she let herself just stand and revel in Evie’s kiss for a second or two before kissing her back, how her hands went up in Evie’s hair. All the little things Evie never wanted to forget, especially,  _especially_  how it felt to hold Mal in her arms. To know that she was safe and sound.  
  
“…I love you, my immortal dragon.”  
  
“And I love you, Evie…my forever princess.”


End file.
